The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1887-10-06
The Ghost of Mrs. Jones,

My neighbor. Mrs. Mills, is the most
practical and business-like woman OF
ny acquaintance. Plump, rosy and
llmpled, she takes life easily, is al
ways cheerful, eschews the emotional,
Ind is never troubled with what saw.
,ge old Carlyle rebuked in poor Jane
- feelings" Her easy.going hus-
band, who dotes on her, earns a good
salary in the city, which, as he detests
accounts, he regularly hands over to
MS wife every Saturday night, making
aer the treasu, er of the concern. And
she fills the position admirably. She
made the estimates for the house
when they were going to build,-she
paid Tor the materials, she kept an
:ye on the carpenters, she paid them
;heir wages until the house was finish
ID; since then, she pays taxes and in:
surapce, and keeps the establishment
n repair. While she is in no sense
niserly or mean, she knows precisely
how many cents there are in q dollar,
and how to use them to the best ad.
vantage. She has a healthy body
and q clear conscience, and is more
completely free from any touch OF
norbidity or superstition than any
person OF my acquaintance.
Not long ago she and | enjoyed an
afternoon chat by ourselves, and the
aiscourse-induced by Il newspape,
paragraph which mentioned-fel on
The subject of ghost stories. | re.
marked specifically: II have been
ghost hunting all my liie-like poor
Shelley
While yet q boy sought for ghosts, and
sped
Through many a listening chamber. cave
And moonlight wood, with fearful steps
pursuing.
Hopes OF high talk with the departed dead
but I have never been able to see one;
and it is hard for me to believe tn t
human eyes ever have seen a disem-
bodied spirit
10 my amazement sudden cloud
had fallen over my neighbours rosy
lace. "f you'll promise not to laugh
at me, or think me an idiot" she said,
II will tell you a little experience OF
mine that has always troubled me. I
rarely mention it, because people who
do not know me as youdo would sure
~ say was visionary and foolish, and
have deceived myself-but l assure
you that what I am gong to tell you
really did happen, in broad daylight,
too"
"Long before you and l became ac-
qualnted and when my Charley was a
baby in my arms--he is my Oldest
child, you know, and then there were
only his father, he and myself in the
family-we lived in a fiat on a pleas.
ant quiet street in Brooklyn, and a
Mr.. Jones and his wife lived in the flat
above us. Mrs. Jones was a very
pleasant and intelligent person and
q good neigh Dor. She was a large,
nngraceful woman, and very plain
looking; and l was not long in per-
ceiying that her husband, who was
her junior by some years, was fully
aware OF these facts, and disliked her
accordingly, although they must have
existed at the time that he asked her
to marry him only a couple OF years
before. 1t was evident that she was
unhappy with him; and, although she
never made a confdant of me, still
from an occasional remark OF hers,
and from the talk OF the neighbors
who had known her before her mar.
riage, l discovered before long that
she had been quite an heiress in he1
own right at that time, and that Mr.
Jones, who seemed to be disliked by
all the people about him in order thai
he might obtain her property. The
match was quite unfit. as she was not
only his senior, but was an eminently
domestic, home-loving woman, who
devoted herself to thecare of her home
and her husband-they had no child
while he was a Tightly, unstable per.
son, often away from home
for days together, and evident
ly caring nothing whatever fol
her devotion to him. / pitied poor
Mrs. Jones thus doomed to q life Of
almost entire loneliness; Tor hel
friends having vainly opposed he1
marriage, believing it to be fortune
hunter and q bad man, seldom came
near her. They had, however, taken
measures to secure her property SO
that he could not obtain control OIL
it. BY failing to provide for the
needs OF the establishment, he forced
her to support him and herself; but
he could hot souander her money
This angered him, OF course, as he
married her with no other purpose
and he treated her brutaily. lie had
never cared for her, and besides, he
was in love with younger and pref
tier woman in the next street, with
whom he was often seen walking, and
at whose house he spent two or three
evenings every week in spite OF gossip
There was no denying that Mrs
Jones was much too good for hel
husband, who seemed trying in al
ways to shorten her life by continued
annoyance and worry.
ut seemed to me after while that
he was trying some more effectua
means to shorten her days. At any
rate, she had queer fits Of illness &C
companied by uncomfortable nausea
and dreadful pain for which there
seemed no sufficient reason. After {
time she would partially recover anC
be about the house again. and after
each i'll turn she looked more anc
more like death, and was at last
hardly able to crawl about and dc
the household work-for she kept nc
servant. spoke to my husband
several times about Mrs. Jones's
strange illness, and her evidently
growing weakness, for it troubled and
puzzled me, as she frequently said she
had always been unusually healthy
up to the time OF her marriage, two Oh
three years before. But my husband
said: II think Jones hates his wife
because he cannot get the money to-
which he married her; but, while hi
isn't too good to put her out Of thu
world, he is not the man to dare dc
anything that would endanger his owl
neck. Besides, she had a physician
when she was last sick-and OF course
Jones couldn't poison her without thu
physicians knowledge
"Of course could say no more; but
l felt unsatis6ed and troubled. II
worried ME daily to see poor Mrs
Jones dragging slowly about he7
rooms trvinO tn do tho woriy u,h;cl